


Blessed by Moonlight

by tonight_aliv (3stir)



Category: Cardcaptor Sakura
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Festivals, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-14 21:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21022643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3stir/pseuds/tonight_aliv
Summary: “Can I help you look?” the boy says, stealing Touya’s attention away from his thoughts.Well, spirit or not, an extra pair of eyes would be helpful. “I’m looking for a girl with light brown hair,” he says softly, motioning to his hip, “about this tall, wearing a yellow shirt and pink overalls.”The boy smiles softly at the description and nods before bounding over to Touya’s side. “Got it. I’ll help you find her.”-For Shibui Zine, a reimagining of Touya and Yukito's first meeting.





	Blessed by Moonlight

The Tsukimine Shrine is bright and vibrant again this year. Vendors line the pathways, their booths alight with warm yellow lanterns and the warmer scents of delicious food. Tomoeda never seems as crowded as it does here, with bodies milling back and forth, shoulder to shoulder, with people he knows well and those he’s only caught glimpses of on market days. The sun sets softly behind a skyline filled to the brim with full summer foliage and fastidious color. The air is still heavy with the heat of mid-summer, but the breeze between the branches is light with relief. The fireflies are steadily emerging from the the koi pond, and their tiny lights blink like dying stars in the spaces between people.

Touya pulls at the hem of his shirt and breathes. He tries to remember the last time he had seen his sister, the last time her hand had tugged on the hem of his shorts. They had eaten some takoyaki at some point. She had cried for a stuffed rabbit, and he’d had to guide her away before the adults around them could start whispering. He remembers catching her gaze as it had drifted to the popcorn stand, the awning of windchimes, the temple itself. Why hadn’t he kept a sharper eye on her? Why had he gotten so distracted by the towering green leaves of the holy cherry blossom tree at the entrance?

He’s suddenly overcome with the longing that lingers in his soul whenever he sees the tree. If only Kaho were here, he thinks, and then he shakes the thought from his head violently. There’s no use in wishing for what could have been. Mizuki Kaho-sensei is gone, along with that calm knowledge that someone finally,  _ finally  _ understands him, finally recognizes the strange things he sees and feels as so unabashedly  _ real _ .

He shakes the lingering sorrow away. He needs to focus.

Logically, he knows he should comb the shrine from the entrance to the forest. He should search methodically and linearly. If he can’t find Sakura by then, after checking in every possible place, he’ll ask for help. It’s a solid enough plan that his anxiety abates back to a low broil in the pit of his stomach.

The crowd thins as he walks back toward the road, and the people he passes begin to greet him quietly. He nods politely with every soft smile he’s given, but the action does nothing to quell his racing pulse. He slows when he sees the towering tree, his long legs tangling around one another as he searches for the familiar head of red hair. He ends up twisting and turning in place, his natural gift for balance and athleticism showing through his easy movements despite his mounting worry.

He doesn’t think about how silly it might look until he hears a soft giggle from underneath the cherry blossom tree, an “Are you alright?”

Touya looks back to the base of the wide tree. Underneath the shimenawa that encircles the bark, he sees a boy leaning against the tree gently. His wisps of silver bangs catch in the gentle breeze, the odd loose strand glistening in the fading sunlight. But there’s something about his eyes, bright and curious with a warmth and depth that stills Touya’s next breath in the back of his throat. He has never before considered that eyes so amber could ever glisten like gold.

“Y-yeah,” he stumbles before recomposing himself, “Yeah, I’m just looking for someone.”

The boy’s brows furrow in a gentle concern, pulling at a warmth rising in Touya’s face as he tries to avoid eye-contact. It’s all a little too much, the gentle rumble of the festival behind him and the rustling leaves above him. The two seem to be the same age, and yet Touya has never seen this boy before. For a fleeting moment, he wonders if the boy is even real. If the boy is still alive. That ethereal appearance wouldn’t be so out of place in a spirit, after all.

“Can I help you look?” the boy says, stealing Touya’s attention away from his thoughts.

Well, spirit or not, an extra pair of eyes would be helpful. “I’m looking for a girl with light brown hair,” he says softly, motioning to his hip, “about this tall, wearing a yellow shirt and pink overalls.”

The boy smiles softly at the description and nods before bounding over to Touya’s side. “Got it. I’ll help you find her.”

A very warm and very real and very alive hand grabs lightly at Touya’s arm. They turn together back toward the festival, marching steadily into the crowd that Touya had just emerged from. The bodies they pass make way for the both of them, and as they search, the hold on Touya’s arm remains firm. The ease with which they fall into step together simultaneously calms Touya’s nerves and leaves him wary.

The boy is real, then. He’s human. He’s alive, and he’s kind. He smiles much more easily than Touya does, which isn’t saying much, but it’s something strange all the same. And that familiar static pull of magic pulses gently when Touya steps too close. It leaves pinpricks in the skin of his upper arm, collected and glowing gold in the shape of a gentle handprint.

“I’m Tsukishiro Yukito,” the boy says after a while. “I just moved in with my grandparents. They’ll be so relieved to hear I’ve managed to make a friend!”

Touya sniffs a soft scoff of a laugh, and for the first time that evening, for the first time in a while, he gives in to this new hint of fate. He trusts the lingering warmth, so like Kaho’s and so completely unlike her at the same time. He trusts that things will be alright, and he’s not entirely sure why.

“I’m Kinomoto Touya. Nice to meet you.”

Yukito smiles sheepishly, a small and forced thing that makes his eyes close and his brow raise, “Y’ know, it’s a bit strange. I had this lingering feeling that I was also looking desperately for someone, while I was standing under that sacred tree.”

Touya throws him a questioning glance. “I thought you said you were new here.”

Laughter rings distantly from the other festival patrons, but the sound doesn’t pass between the two of them. Instead the air fills with the soft tension of anticipation, of the static that settles in the wake of closely held secrets. It leaves the faint taste of magic on the back of Touya’s tongue despite the normalcy of it all.

Like a spell cast between the rustling of tanabata paper in the gentle breeze, it’s ephemeral and captivating.

Yukito just shrugs.

“Yeah. I don’t really understand it, either.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you forever to yu, who pulled this project up from nearly nothing and sacrificed so much time and hardship to step up where the other mods failed spectacularly. The zine turned out gorgeous, and it was all thanks to your leadership.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy!


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